Sunset Flip Presents:
Money In The Bank
By Jim Boy Star
We are a week after Wrestlemania and it is great to be a pro wrestling fan. If only, for one major reason. The All American American Jack Swagger is the WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION!
While I have no doubt, that WWE will mess this up, I will enjoy it while I can. Jack Swagger is the quickest guy to cash in Money in the Bank to date. I wanted to take this column to celebrate and take a look back at the past Money in The Bank winners.
2005 MITB Winner Edge: Edge was the first person to win the Money in The Bank briefcase and he set the stage for future winners. He cashed in at No Way Out the following year after John Cena won the Elimination Chamber match. Some may say this was the best use of Money in the Bank, but at the same time, this was also the first and there was nothing to be expected previously.
2006 MITB Winner Rob Van Dam: RVD was the only person that actually said ahead of time when he was chasing in his briefcase. RVD’s cashing in of the briefcase was also significant because it brought about another edition of the “One Night Stand” Pay per view, which was headlined by Rob Van Dam cashing in Money in The Bank against John Cena.
2007 MITB Winner Ken Kennedy: Without a doubt, the dumbest Money in the Bank winner. Kennedy was so moronic that he put his briefcase up against Edge and then lost. Of course, the next day, at the Smackdown tapings Edge won the Smackdown title. There really was no reason for Kennedy to put the briefcase up and he even had a good story with the briefcase. He had said he was going to cash in at Wrestlemania, despite the fact it was almost a year away. It was one of the most original ideas WWE has ever come up with, but Kennedy was injured and they switched it back to Edge. 2007 MITB will probably go down as the most confusing MITB situations since its creation.
2008 MITB Winner CM Punk: When CM Punk won the briefcase, some were wondering if this would be the first year that MITB winner would actually lose his championship match. That was not the case. CM Punk cashed in against in late June of that year, after Edge was beaten up by Batista. Later on that night, CM Punk put the title on the line against JBL and was able to leave the building with the title, which many thought he wouldn’t. Unfortunately, I feel, CM Punk was very overshadowed by the usual shove-down-your-throat stars on Raw (Triple H, Cena, Batista, Orton, etc.) and never really had a great run.
2009 MITB Winner CM Punk: Once again, CM Punk won the briefcase and I assumed WWE was going to try to make it up to CM Punk for his first run which was horrible. CM Punk used MITB to turn himself heel by cashing in on Jeff Hardy after Hardy fought Edge in a grueling ladder match. This would be the first tie that someone used the briefcase to change their status as either face or heel. Unfortunately, much like the first time, CM Punk’s title run was very forgettable. He played catch with the championship with Jeff Hardy through the summer and looked very bad in a feud with The Undertaker.
2010 MITB Winner Jack Swagger: This year, Jack Swagger cashed in within one week of winning the MITB briefcase and I couldn’t be happier. There’s not many things I look forward to while watching WWE these days, but Jack Swagger has definitely given me a new spark. I definitely see WWE dropping the ball on this one. However, let us all enjoy it while we can.
This week, due to Easter holiday, there’s no full Sunset Flip Wrestling Show but check out Sunset Fip Quickie, a 20 minute podcast wondering what the future of the show will hold.
Have a great week everyone